There are no Christmas trees or scarf-clad ice skaters in this holiday display. This year, beloved New York department store Barneys has eschewed traditional winter holiday decor in favor of a collaboration with designer siblings Simon and Nikolai Haas (better known as The Haas Brothers). Far from stopping with the window displays—a production for many stores this time of year—the brothers have created a fully interactive world in Barneys' Chelsea and Madison Avenue locations dubbed Haas for the Holidays that encompasses the stores' interior decor and products.

"Haas for the Holidays is about positivity and tackling complicated themes through the playful and unique lens of Haas environments and characters," Barneys' creative director Matthew Mazzucca tells AD. "We focused on creating accessible and universal themes that are true for the holidays no matter where you celebrate—like love, friendship, family, and inclusiveness—rather than using traditional holiday or winter motifs."

A window in the Chelsea store.

Photo: Tom Sibley

The brothers built their whimsical world around the theme "The Future Is Your Present." Explains Simon Haas, "Our general concept is that our future is a gift to us and that our future depends on the now. We wanted to make a nondenominational holiday that focuses on gratitude and love for our planet and the life on it. The windows show a timeline from primordial past through a psychedelic rainbow future with a set of screens that are synced to show day and night passing. We wanted to show that all moments that have happened have happened under the same sky and with the same cycles. We made every plant and animal anthropomorphic so that the only denomination you might ascribe to our version of the holidays is animism."

The brothers turned columns at the Madison Avenue store into cacti.

Photo: Courtesy of Barneys

For Mazzucca, bringing this concept to life was the fulfillment of a long-held admiration for the artists, who are based in Los Angeles but are represented in New York by R & Company. "I’ve been aware of The Haas Brothers for years, mostly through their furniture design and sculpture," Mazzucca says. "I, and several of my colleagues at Barneys, had always admired their multidisciplinary approach and the message of their work. When we were thinking about developing a holiday campaign that could embody positive and playful messages, we immediately thought of Simon and Niki."

A space in the Madison Avenue store featuring a neon sign saying "Boulder and Wiser." "We loved getting to create sets for our existing pieces and to include animation, and we also loved getting to use fonts we’ve developed as we rarely have a venue for them," says Simon Haas. "We did adapt our punny naming style into some hashtag-able holiday messaging, which I was really excited about because wordplay has always been important to our work and it gets a bigger stage in this project."

Photo: Courtesy of Barneys

Beyond the windows, the brothers have swathed interiors in Barneys' two boutiques in their creations, including a dazzling, kaleidoscopic spiral staircase in the Chelsea store and larger-than-life cacti columns at Madison Avenue. "We hope that anyone who sees this work will leave feeling just a bit happier than when they came in," says Simon. "We wanted very much for children to love it, so hopefully all the kids will love it and be inspired to create something of their own—or even come away with a positive saying that means something to them."

Inside the Chelsea store.

Photo: Tom Sibley

Looking down the staircase in Chelsea.

Photo: Tom Sibley

They have also created a line of limited-edition Haas Brothers XO Barneys New York merchandise that spans clothing, homewares, coloring books, and even skateboards. As part of the launch, Barneys and the Haas brothers will also debut the #HaasRules social media campaign, a reference to each of several "rules" represented by various moments in the stores: The Future is Your Present,” “Snake Love, Not War,” “Can’t Stop the Waves, Just Wave Back,” and more.

For each social media post with the hashtag #HaasRules through January 1, the Barneys New York Foundation will donate $5 to the Children’s Defense Fund. "#HaasRules are positive sentiments to live by that are associated with Haas characters, so they tell a full concept in a fun and pithy way," explains Mazzucca. "Every store, and each floor in our Madison Avenue flagship, is a reflection of these ideas. One of the major themes, which you can see woven through the windows and inside the stores is “The Future is Your Present,” the idea that the future is a gift, which is reflective and something we can all relate to this time of year."

Adds Simon Haas, "Holidays have universal appeal because they are moments when we all stop to be grateful for each other and to appreciate what we have. Holidays are about gratitude, generosity, and joy." Now there's a message we can get behind.

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